John Cleese says political correctness has gone too far, especially on America’s college campuses, where he will no longer go to perform. As BigThink reports, the very essence of his trade — comedy — is criticism and that not infrequently means hurt feelings. But protecting everyone from negative emotion all the time is not only impractical (one can’t control the feelings of another), but also improper in a free society.

Cleese, having worked with psychiatrist Robin Skynner, says there may even be something more sinister behind the insistence to be always be politically correct.

Book: The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech by Kimberley Strassel

Most Americans agree that police should not be able to raid citizens’ homes at dawn without notice and seize their personal records and computers at gunpoint, in order to scrutinize their political activities. That’s what police did in Wisconsin in 2015 to a wide range of private citizens who’d opposed the recall of Governor Scott Walker, in the infamous “John Doe” investigations—which included a shocking “gag order” threatening those citizens with legal punishment even for revealing that their homes had been raided.

Nor should private citizens who support a political cause have their names exposed, so that they can be harassed, boycotted, and fired. That is what happened to Brendan Eich, cofounder of Mozilla, for a years-old contribution in defense of traditional marriage.